Yin, Yang, and Amy
by DiamondBeast
Summary: Amy Rose, young freedom fighter and self-proclaimed 'number one fan' of Sonic the Hedgehog, has always had weird dreams. Sometimes they tell the future. Others times the truth. This time, though, they tell her something that turns her entire world- well, worlds- inside out and upside down. Based off of v-16-v's 'Two Worlds, One Amy'.
1. Once Upon A Dream

Yin-Yang; the ancient Chinese philosophy in which everything has its opposite. Nothing is unbalanced- life and death, night and day, hot and cold. These contrary forces are utterly dependant on one another, and if on fails the other will surely falter.  
This is the story of a young girl trapped between two opposing forces; yang, where her loved ones are, and yin, where she can trust no one.

~0~ YIN-VERSE ~0~

Two doves circled each other, flying up and down throughout the trees lining the peaceful stone road.

"Sonic! Good morning!"  
The birds fluttered down into a tree, watching as a carefree girl skipped down towards the object of her affections. He was sitting at one of the small cafe tables that littered the plaza, chowing down on a couple of chili dogs.

"Hi Sonic! How are you- oh. Good morning, Sally. How are you two today?" Amy's smile faltered a bit at the sight of the brown-furred princess, but didn't die and in fact got brighter when the blue blur answered.

"Oh, heya Ames. I don't think I've been better since the last time I had chili dogs!" He gave her a small smile and she felt her heart flutter. The butterflies died, however, when Sally spoke up.

"Oh, Sonic, you ate five chili dogs just this morning!" The chipmunk flicked her hair back over her shoulder, smiling that weird smile with too many teeth she so often wore when Amy was around.

"Ah, yes. There's your answer, Amy! The same as I was when I woke up and man did I wake up in a good mood." He picked up the next dog on his plate and took another bite.

"Oh, good! I was just-" Amy was cut off as Sally gave a loud laugh and playfully swiped at Sonic.

"Sonic, slow down! That chili dog isn't going to go anywhere."

"Well, Sal, with my luck it's either gonna burst into flames or run away, so between you and me I'd rather eat it before that happens. You know what I mean?"  
The two burst into laughter, and before Amy could speak up again Sally took on a gossipy tone and began to lecture Sonic on the very latest in castle happenings.  
Amy, well versed in all things Sonic, knew that the twitching of his ear was a sign he was frustrated. Trapped. Sally knew this . . . but Sally didn't care.  
Amy cared.

"I, um, I have to go now. Things to do. People to see. Uh- goodbye." She took a few hesitant steps backward. Neither of the two at the table noticed.  
"I'll see you later, I guess."  
She retreated, walking faster than she should've, and up above the two birds flew off- no longer singing their happy tune. In less than a minute, Sonic and Sally were left alone with their lop-sided conversation.

"Good morning, Amy!"

"Good morning, Vector."

"Hello, Ms. Rose."

"Hello, Miss Hershey."  
As she made her way across town, weaving her way back home, she met many of her acquaintances.  
None of them friends, none of them someone to talk to. And none of them someone who would understand.  
Amy wasn't a 12-year-old, not really. She'd been born eight years ago, but she'd gone through a ritual- one known to drive people insane- in order to grow old only a few months ago. Using the Ring of Acorns and not having royal blood was a sure recipe for disaster. And Amy, while a magnificent baker, was no match for something like that.  
She'd done it in a vain attempt to match up with her crush. He'd saved from Metal Sonic, he'd rescued her from Little Planet. He'd taken her here, given her a home, been her . . . friend.  
Kind of.  
She knew she should be grateful, but she just couldn't shake the odd feeling she was doing the wrong thing. That somewhere along the line she'd messed up and now she was paying the price. Little Planet, barren wasteland that it was, hadn't felt like a home, so she had always assumed this feeling was due to that. It wasn't.  
She had been so hopeful when Sonic had first presented a small cottage to her, 'a home sweet home', as he had called it. Finally, she would make friends. Finally, she would have a family, a chance, a life.  
But fate was a horrible, horrible thing to put faith into.  
Amy Rose didn't belong anywhere.  
A few hours later, Amy was just finishing her simple dinner and Sally decided to make her move.

"Sonic, dear, I've been thinking . . ."

"'Bout what?" Sonic was rubbing his ear. Reflexive twitching was a horrible thing to have.

"About Amy! She's much too young to live on her own."

"She's the same age as we were when we first came to Knothole."

"Not in her head she isn't. Why did you give her a house of her own? She should be in the Children's Home . . ."

"Sal, we were fighting Robotnik at eight, and if I remember correctly you said you wouldn't set foot in the Children's Home if your life depended on it. Why would Amy be any different?"

"Because she's- well, she's not exactly able to take care of herself . . ."

"She can cook, she can bake, and she makes a pretty good living telling fortunes. You know this, Sally- heck, you were the one to tell me this! I don't know why you're so worried about it- she'll be fine."

'And that,' Sally thought darkly, 'Is exactly what I'm worried about."

~0~ AMY-VERSE ~0~

Darkness.  
That's the first thing she saw. As one with the Sight, she knew that dreams were nothing to take lightly. And a dream about darkness signaled very foreboding things indeed.  
Wait, no, not darkness. How could she have made such a mistake- why, right over there was the brightest light she'd ever seen. It pulsed and changed, like sunlight on a cloudy day, and standing right there in the center of it was the figure she knew so well.  
Or, at least, she thought it was Sonic. She'd spent so much time with him, thinking of him, hoping about him. This off-looking Sonic must be a result of her using the Ring of Acorns. Maybe she had gone mad, after all. Long quills, very long, curving down in sharp, dangerous spikes. The Sonic she knew had stubby spines running all down his back, and paler fur. This Sonic looked like he'd formed out of a chunk of open sky. Oh, he was turning.

"Amy!" He ran towards her. How odd. A dream of Sonic running to HER? She stood stock still in the darkness as he left his patch of sunlight and grabbed her by the shoulders. His eyes- oh, his beautiful eyes- were nothing like the Sonic she knew outside this dream-world. Green swirled around, emerald fire contained in such a small, powerful space. The other- no, the original Sonic had black eyes, the same as Sally, the same as every one else.  
Amy stood, entranced, until the new Sonic spoke again.

"It's really you, isn't it? Amy?"

"W-who are you?" She stuttered a little. His voice was deeper, kinder than the other Sonic's. This Sonic cared.

"Why, I'm Santa Claus." Sonic grinned, pushing at her shoulders playfully. She stumbled back. "C'mon, Amy, it's me! Sonic! The blue blur! Your oldest friend in the whole wide world!"

"I- I don't- you can't be Sonic! Sonic doesn't look like that . . ." She brought a hand up to her lips, confused.

"Look like what? Rugged? Handsome? Undeniably delightful?" She smiled, pushing back at him.

"No, silly! Sonic isn't taller than me, and he certainly doesn't have quills like yours."

"Aw, Amy! I am Sonic!"

"No . . . no, you most definitely are not." She'd wouldn't tell him this, but the real Sonic would never let her call him silly, or push at him, or call himself her friend. He'd run.

"Ouch . . . never thought getting rejected by you would hurt." He rubbed the back of his neck before bringing his hand back down and smiling down at her mischievously. "But I think I can think of a way to remedy that . . . "  
She laughed, letting a smile fly back onto her face. Real Sonic would NEVER flirt with HER!

"Ah, there's that smile. I can't tell you how long I've been waiting to see you smile." He grinned, relieved, and she felt herself relax. This Sonic may not be Real, but at least he was hers . . . her friend. She meant friend. She pushed out at him again, still laughing a little.

"Hey, come on now. That's not a very nice way to say hello . . . don't I get a hug?" He wrapped his arms around himself dramatically, pretending to be disappointed.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Huh?" He stood up straight, arms falling to his sides. "Doing what?"

"I mean, why are you being so nice to me? You never do that . . ."

"I admit I wasn't always there to talk to or take you shopping but I've always been nice to you . . . heck, we've been great friends since the day we met! You're confusing me with the Other Sonic. Now that guy is a bonafide-"

"What? How- Huh?" She couldn't even find the right words, she was so confused.

"Uh-"

"How- No, what do you mean, 'Other Sonic'. You're just a part of my dream and the real Sonic is . . . well, real. If anything you would be the other Sonic."

"Amy . . . uh, well, do you believe in other Worlds?"

"Yes. Little Planet, the Moon, Mars-"

"No, I mean like whole other universes. Other Worlds." He gestured with his fingers, making fists and splaying them back out.

"Oh. I . . . guess I do?" He wasn't making very much sense. She'd have to look up what it meant if one dreamt of insane crushes.

"Good, because you don't belong in this one."

"Obviously. I don't need a figment of my imagination to tell me that-"

"No, no, no. That's not- Amy." He looked her dead in the eye, and, the smallest hint of a smile on his face, spoke, "You belong in my world."

~0~0~0~

Hey, it's nice to see you all! I'm afraid I kind of lost where I was going with my other stories, so if you have any suggestions for those just message me.  
I'm taking over this wonderful story from v-16-v, who deleted the original story or I'd ask you to read that one first. Then again, no one really wants spoilers. And I know Sonic is a bit too flirtatious and OOC, but I'm trying to exaggerate the difference between the two. One [the one that's here in her dreams] is supposed to be SEGA Sonic, whereas the bland one dating Sally is Archie Sonic. Yin-Verse is the Archie world, Amy-Verse is within her dreams, which will soon be explained.  
Go ahead and review- it's a great idea. Trust me.


	2. Twinkle Park, Apparently

~0~ YANG-VERSE ~0~

Sonic looked out the window, watching a pair of ravens play in the trees outside. It'd been two years- give or take, he was man enough to admit he couldn't remember the date- since Amy had disappeared, and today was the first time in all that time they had a chance of finding her again.  
Tails had just finished his newest invention, a device to look into someone else's dreams. [He needed to remember to congratulate the little guy, even though it was a little creepy.] An odd idea, one thought up by Cream, but if anybody could have brought it to life it was Tails- and he'd done it, too. He'd explained it all- something scientific- about how the synapses in an average brain connected the same way no matter the environment. They changed speed and strength according to the person's genetics, so if he locked in on the right frequency they'd be able to view that person's dreams no matter what. Or something along those lines. The only thing Sonic had really understood was that he'd tried to find Amy with the machine, just an experiment he hadn't expected to work, and managed to lock in on her frequency. Her location was fuzzy, but apparently she was in a dimension parallel to theirs and doing just fine.  
Only she wasn't fine- being transported was hard enough on her system, but she'd recently been exposed to a huge amount of chaotic magic and it totally fried her hard drive. She was in a medieval dimension, if Tails' scanners were correct, and they didn't have good enough medical technology to know she was even hurt. If they didn't bring her back soon . . . she would die.  
He volunteered to be the first subject on their side of the device. He only had to get hooked up, fall asleep, and explain things to Amy and they would be on their way to bringing her back and fixing all the mistakes that had snowballed into her . . . _disappearance_.  
The machine looked sort of like one of the brain-sucker things from a beauty salon. Sonic felt more than a little stupid putting it on and trying to settle into the cold, hard chair it was attached to. Oh, man, even with all the others outside of the room it was hard to fall asleep. Deep breaths. Deep, slow breaths. Just . . . just be calm.

In.

**Beep.**

Out.

**Beep.**

In.

**Beep.**

Out.

The machine was noisy . . . and now it was off. Great. Nice one, getting your hopes up like that, Sonic. He looked around. He was surrounded by a weird light- probably the machine- but the rest of his small, small world was now black. Man, Sonic. All that effort and all you do is short circuit the electrical system. Just darkness now.  
And Amy.  
Oh, Chaos, she was almost exactly the same. Gorgeous green eyes, soft pink fur, fashionable red clothing. But the scars he could see littering her body were new. The roughly cut quills were new.  
The look of despair was new.

"Amy!"

~0~ AMY-VERSE ~0~

Sonic had the best night of sleep he'd had in two years [not counting any times he was drugged or knocked out or- shut up he was supposed to be emotional right now]. He spent it all talking with Amy, explaining about his world and hers, even- dare he say it- flirting a little with her. He had to admit, seeing her again, one of his best friends since forever, was almost too much. He had a feeling his eyes were getting pink from unshod tears- she kept staring at them, so they probably were.

"Okay . . . I think I understand the whole Other Worlds thing. And that you're _a_ Real Sonic, but not the Real Sonic I was talking to _earlier_ . . . but what makes the two so different? I mean, isn't your world just like mine?"

"Our world, Amy. You belong with me, remember. But- well, Tails said you lived in a medieval era. This true?"

"Uh . . . we have knights and a monarchy, so compared to Robotropilis I guess we might be considered medieval. But what do you mean, 'Tails said'? I don't want to sound mean, but Tails is a little lacking in the brains department."

"That's the first difference, then. My Tails is a bonafide genius. He could solve any math problem, read any book- heck, he even invented and built the machine I'm using to talk to you right now!" Sonic felt his ears perking up and his tail twitching from side to side. This much happiness could not be contained. Amy was here!

"Tails? A genius? Now I've heard everything." Oh, but she had a beautiful laugh. And a beautiful smile. And beautiful everything.

"Not quite. I don't know what your world looks like, but mine is downright gorgeous. The sunsets are breath-taking, the mountains are like some sort of awesome art piece, I've been in forests where the trees have rainbow-colored bark. Everywhere you go, there's a Chao garden right around the corner. My favorite is the one right by your house, the one our friend Cream is in charge of. All the Chao there are trained to play games, and believe me when I say that those little guys can play a mean Hot Potato."  
Oh, she laughed again, score! Do it again, Amy, laugh for your buddy.

"And then there's Twinkle Park. Man, but that place was an adventure all it's own. You used to-" He stopped, amazed. The darkness around them was fading away, the light he had come from becoming the sun and rising up, casting orangey pink light over an odd landscape. It looked sort of like Twinkle Park- missing pieces, and the rides were kind of lopsided, but definitely the festive plaza he knew so well. Amy's subconscious must've remembered, even if she hadn't, and had created this place from the memory.  
Woah.

"Is this it?" She whispered lightly. His tail drooped a little. He'd never heard her talk like this. She was always so confident, so sure. Now she sounded small, weak, forgotten.

"Yep." He dropped down on a nearby bench, avoiding her eyes and looking at the off-color wood that he sat on.

"Oh, wow, this is-" She ran down the path, looking at the lively rides and games. "This is amazing!"  
Sonic nodded, his gaze frozen on the small scratches in the wood.  
Amy + Sonic 4ever.  
He'd sat on this bench with her, once, on the only date she'd ever convinced him to go on.  
Had she written this?  
Or was this a part of her imagination? [Ugh this was supposed to be a test of Amy's continued existance, not his sanity. As soon as he woke up he was gonna check Twinkle Park for this and- and- and whatever else he could think of. He hated being left in the dark like this.]  
He leaped up and followed her, down the winding stone pathway, all the way to the fortune tellers' tent. She went in.  
He hesitated. In there, he was sure, she would ask the question he had been dreading.

"Sonic? Are you coming?"  
He followed.  
Amy was settling herself onto one of the cushioned chairs in the shrouded tent, the crystal ball in front of her giving off a glow that made her eyes light up. She looked up when he walked in.

"Sonic?"

"Yeah, Amy?" Here it comes.

"If I'm supposed to be in your world . . . how did I end up in mine?"

~0~ YANG-VERSE ~0~

They'd been coming down to Mobius in the Cyclone, the joy of coming home filling them all with a warm, fuzzy feeling. They were done, they were safe.  
Shadow was the first one to notice something was wrong. Figures. He'd never really been one for happy endings.

"Faker, you need to look at this."  
Sonic had been a little exasperated at Shadow for bringing him down from his high, but came over anyway.

"Dude, it's probably just some- holy cow." Outside, just beyond arms reach, in fact, was another metal monstrosity. Eggman. "Shadow, go warn the others. I'll get outside."  
The taller hedgehog nodded, and the two sped off in opposite directions. Sonic, now standing on the outer deck of the Cyclone, felt the ship groan and shift under his feet as Tails sped up the landing process. The guns on the side clicked into place; in his minds eye he could see Rouge and Amy in the Battle Stations, goggles on, aiming their cross hairs at vital points in Eggbutt's ship.

"SONIC, I KNOW YOU'RE ON THERE."

'No duh, you butthead'. Sonic didn't answer. A mission in space really teaches a guy that trying to shout over two monster jet engines, fan-blades, wind and Eggman's tirades was a futile practice.

"ROBOTS; I WANT YOU TO CAPTURE THE PESKY BLUE HEDGEHOG AND ALL HIS ANNOYING LITTLE FRIENDS."  
Drones poured out of the other ship by the dozen and Sonic pushed his weight onto his toes. The guns couldn't get all those guys, no matter how good his gun women were. He'd have to kick some robot behind.  
The battle was short and fierce, as they always were. The Cyclone had landed, and Knuckles had taken off with all the others into Tail's Workshop, in order to get out of Eggman's line of fire. Shadow stayed to fight, the stubborn fuzzball that he was, and wouldn't go no matter how Sonic tried to shoo him. They were winning; Eggman had once again not made enough drones. They were WINNING.  
They had been SO CLOSE.

And that's when Eggman made his move: "ALL ROBOTS! LEAVE THE HEDGEHOG ALONE! JUST GET THOSE CHAOS EMERALDS!"  
What? Hadn't that hot-headed echidna taken them all with him? He and Shadow zipped inside to the power bay, only to find Amy in there already, pounding the drones away with her hammer.

"I- won't- let- you- stupid- robutts- get- these- emeralds!" She pounded away a metallic monster which every word. Her quills were flying around, the energy from the emeralds blowing them every which way. She looked like an Amazon goddess, her eyes lighting up in the heat of battle, blasting away badniks with every swing of her ginormous hammer.  
Knuckles would've been proud and quite possibly promoted her to honorary guardian.  
Sonic was just swept off his feet.

"Finally!" With assistance from the two boys below her, she'd destroyed all the drones that were left. She hadn't noticed them yet, apparently. "If Eggman had gotten these babies it would've been game over for us!" She began to pull them out and place them in her satchel, the old leather bag she kept her magic supplies in. "Red, Gold, Blue, Green- oh, no!" She wrapped both hands around the stone and pulled, hard. "It won't come out!"  
A loud keening came from above, and giant metal claws ripped into the ceiling. Amy ignored them as she considered the emerald.

"Oh, right. Shadow used this one."

"Shadow, what did you do to that thing?" Sonic asked through gritted teeth. His fellow considered.

"Well, first I jammed it in there-"

"He must've shoved this thing in here-"

"Then I kicked at it, to make sure it stuck-"

"Or whacked at it with a hammer-"

"After that, I put some of that super glue on it."

"And then he must've glued it in there or something, 'cuz MAN that thing is in snug!"

"Well, gee, Shadow, you never thought what it'd be like to the person trying to get it out?" Sonic readied himself to jump up next to Amy and help. The black-furred life form did the same.

"Like you would've prepared for this occasion. Honestly, Faker, you think I meant for-"

The robot's fist smashed through and dove for the emeralds- and the unsuspecting girl who was just now seeing the threat.

"Oh NO-" She pulled out her hammer, readying herself to defend the power sources behind her. She would break her arm, dislocate it at the very least, if she didn't do this right. That robot wasn't about to stop. She braced herself. The two boys leaped up behind her, running to make it in time. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, waiting for the impact. Wildly shaking, about to fall apart and already flaming, the robot made ungodly noise as it hurtled down.

. . .

. . .

. . .

Have you ever been at ground zero for a bombing, or a massive explosion? The sound is indescribable. Everything suddenly growing quiet, then nothing, then an impossibly loud and impossibly soft thunder. People screaming. Buildings collapsing. Children crying. Then utter silence.  
It's the sound of Game Over.

. . .

. . .

. . .

That's what happened. In the painfully long moments before she disappeared, along with the chaos emeralds, Sonic could see her turn towards him. She said something- he couldn't hear it- and slowly closed her eyes, breathing out one last, soft breath.  
And then silence.

~0~ AMY-VERSE ~0~

Amy held her breath. This Sonic- her real Sonic, if he was to be believed- had just told her a story so unbelievable it had to be true. It was obvious he hadn't told this tale before. Pauses, stutters, repeats and poor word choices littered his story. But the whole time she listened to his words she watched his eyes and those eyes swam with massive depths of untold emotion. He meant every word of his story, and she could see the memory unfold in his eyes.  
She believed him.  
There was still a very high chance he wasn't real. That she had finally snapped and her brain had come up with this kind Sonic to help cushion the loss of sanity. But regardless of his questionable existence, he wasn't lying.

"And . . . well, after that we all just kinda felt lost. I sat there all night and most of the next day. I thought that, if you came back, that was where you would land. You didn't."  
The two of them sat for a minute in companionable silence.

"If I had just moved faster- If I hadn't been so slow-" He broke off, eyes narrowing, and bit his lip. He didn't look at her when he continued. "When I finally figured out you weren't gonna come back, I went and kicked Eggman's butt. He didn't show his face for a while." He got up and stretched, walking back out of the tent and into the sunlight. She followed, her legs a little sore from sitting so long.

"But- but if all that really happened, then how do I remember growing up here?"

"Chaos 'Control' is just an alliterative phrase. What happened to you was a self-preservation gamble that just happened to send you here. Probably back in time a little, too, and since time runs differently here, you managed to grow up, back into your usual stunning self." He winked at her. Whatever pain he had felt telling the story was outmatched by the relief he felt getting it off of his chest.

"Okay, that makes sense. But- but what about-" She had so many questions, so little answers, but he stopped her with a finger to her lips.

"Don't worry about it tonight, Ames." She felt herself blush at the sound of her nickname.

"Just trust me."

~0~0~0~

Wow. I actually updated a story. Isn't this impressive?  
Again, this story isn't mine; the characters belong to SEGA/Archie, and the idea belongs to v-16-v.  
Review! Do it for the vine!


	3. Every Rose Has Its Thorns

~0~ YIN-VERSE ~0~

BRING! **Bzzzz.** BRING! **Bzzzz.** BRING!

"Good morning to you too, Alarm Clock." Amy pushed herself up in the nest of tangled sheets, reaching over to turn off the buzzing machine. The doves were back, sitting on her windowsill, and they watched soundlessly as she hauled herself out of bed and into the shower, steam pouring out the open door. She let her hands follow the routine, enjoying the hot water flowing down her spines. Strawberry shampoo? Check; rinse. Raspberry conditioner? Check; rinse. Her fingers slid around each bottle easily, the placement so familiar that she knew it even with her eyes closed. Vanilla Mint Body wash, Peppermint Fur Lotion, Lotus Spring Revitalizing Cream- they all came and went, Amy only needing to guide herself in the slightest way. Call her girly, but really, when you live in a forest and all the products are essentially home-grown, you're gonna but all the good stuff. Also it smells like a garden.  
The mirror was fogged when she got out and wrapped herself up in a towel, and she paused only to wipe off the worst of it before stepping onto the fuzzy carpet of her room.

"Oh, I don't know how Sonic does it, all that running and never- oh my Chaos, Sonic!" The dream that had slipped her mind came rushing back, all at once, and she sat down on her bed heavily. Oh, man, that dream . . ! Had it been real, had it- had it- was it true? Should she believe it? She bit her lip. Things like that simply didn't happen to her. She was much to much of a- a bothersome child for something as amazing and hopeful as that to pertain to her.  
She picked up the brush from her bedside table and ran it through her quills, she let go of the sheer ridiculousness of the situation, it was simple. She had no real, solid reasons as to why she shouldn't believe the Dream Sonic. If his Tails was a genius and built the machine as he said he did, it made sense. If she'd been to Twinkle Park, as he said, it explained the odd amusement park her dream had featured. If she'd been mule-headed enough to stray from the group and put herself in danger in his world, it explained why she was so crazy as to use the Ring of Acorns here. In fact, she only had one reason left.  
If she believed him, it meant hoping- again- that she had a chance.  
And this Amy Rose was done with broken dreams.  
But it certainly made more sense than any other odd ideas she'd had. It even beat out the alien theory from age seven, and the lost princess theory from age five.  
She shook her head, swinging her soft quills around. She was thinking about this way too much; it was time for some fresh air.  
Amy dressed in a blur, using the clothes she'd lain out the other night, and made her way downstairs quick as a rabbit. Grabbing an apple from the bowl on the counter, she dashed out the door and headed as fast as she could for anywhere. This called for some serious thinking.

~0~ YANG-VERSE ~0~

". . . nic! Sonic, can you hear me?"

"Stop shouting, Tails, you'll give him a headache."

" . . . you mean in addition to the one I already have, or a different one I can exchange for prizes?" Smiling weakly, he pushed the headgear off and back into place, trying to stretch in the confined space and failing.

"Sonic!" Tails, intuitive buddy that he was, handed him a glass of water and a pair of pills. "How did it go? Did you see Amy?"

"Oh, yeah," He downed all three items quickly, grimacing at the taste, "I saw her all right! Let's go downstairs so I can tell everyone at once how it went." He waved the younger boy off, groaning as he sat up and tried to stand. Shadow was at his side in an instant, grinning evilly as he helped him up.

"Sorry about the headache there, ol' chap. If you weren't underage a whiskey'd fix that up in a jiffy. Too bad." He shook his head mockingly. "Seriously though, if it gets to be a problem Rouge has got an awesome hangover thing that'd do the trick-"

"Shadow, what exactly is it that you want." _It's too early for this._ "And what time is it?"  
They maneuvered down a set of stairs and down a hallway, nearing the dining room with every step. Rabbit Mansion was a pretty swanky place, if you took the time to appreciate it.

"Oh, hm, let me see, I would rather like it if you told me how my sister was doing. If you hadn't noticed I haven't seen her in two years and also it is like noon. You slept for ages."  
They rounded another corner and Sonic gave into the urge to roll his eyes.

"How did Tails convince you to play guinea pig for his antidepressants, again?"

"By promising me a new motorcycle. And an easier way to clean the filters on my jet shoes. Why do you ask?" Shadow, lifting him up and over the steps into the dining room, looked at him questioningly.

"Oh, no reason . . . what's for lunch?"

~0~ YIN-VERSE ~0~

Amy finally ended up somewhere in the thick forest surrounding Knothole. Through the trees she could see the clear blue sky, almost the same shade as Dream Sonic's fur.  
Dream Sonic. The very reason she found herself here, and the only reason she'd been wandering around in the first place. The man was a mystery, no doubt about that. He'd shown up out of nowhere, charmed her, enchanted her, and opened her eyes to an entire WORLD she'd been missing out on. She was quite frankly swept off her feet. If he was to be believed- and Amy had to admit that at this point she pretty much believed him- then all this time she'd been living the wrong life. All this time- all those tears- she'd been right. She didn't belong.  
She paused in her thinking for a while, laying back and watching the sky through the trees. A singular cloud wandered past, aloof and wispy. All by itself in the wide sea of sky- nothing like it for as far as she could see. Kind of like her, all alone in the deep waters of crushes, rivalry's and mistakes. Abandoned. And bound to dissipate.  
She sat up. No. She was wrong. Amy Rose was not doomed, not fated to fail. She had someone waiting for her somewhere, whether it was Dream Sonic in Twinkle Park or another Freedom Fighter she'll run into on the street. And by golly she was going to find them.  
She got up and dusted herself off, heading back towards her house, a determined look in her eye.

Just because she didn't quite belong didn't mean she didn't matter.

While Amy was settling down for lunch in the local pizzeria, Sally was settling down in a fancy armchair on the set of the infamous talk show host, Sasha Silverpaw. She'd been asked to an interview, and, never one to upset the delicate balance of a rumor mill, accepted. It didn't hurt that a meeting with Sasha would greatly boost her popularity.  
A brown bear with curly fur stood beside one of the cameras; he was the floor manager, she remembered, and hadn't been receptive to friendly chatter. "We're on air in three! . . two! . . one!"

"Hello, Mobius, and good morning to all of you. It's a beautiful day, and as a special treat he have Princess Sally Acorn, heir to the Acorn Throne, here with us today." Sasha winked at the camera playfully- one of the many reasons she was a celebrity was because she readily admitted that she loved a juicy scoop. Sally missed this, however, too busy keeping up a regal attitude. "Princess, would you mind answering a few questions?"

"Oh, ask away!" Sally flashed a smile. "I wouldn't want to keep any secrets."  
Amy was starting in on her first slice when Pierre, the old otter that ran the pizzeria, turned on the small TV in the corner, tuning into the news and selecting a favorite among customers; the Sasha Meltdown Show. Amy perked up, being a bit of a fan herself.

". . . so Princess, I was wondering." Ooh, Sasha's tail was twitching. She was going in for the kill. "I've heard a few whispers on the grapevine that you've been pushing for more soldiers to battle Dr. Robotnik's forces. Is this true?"

"Yes, actually. More soldiers would lessen the amount of civilians trying to stop the robots themselves." Sally smiled slightly, her cheeks too tight for it to look genuine.

"But it would also lessen the relief teams each area has. Taking away capable people from one area to put them in another just makes the playing field uneven, not to mention decrease a 'civilian's' chances of getting help if there aren't any soldiers in the area."

"I-"

"And then there's the matter of Sonic the Hedgehog, hero we all know and love." Sasha's tail was thrashing now, swinging around for another biting remark. "With him leading the Freedom Fighters into battle, wouldn't more soldiers just get in his way? Bringing in new players will make things harder on him and put unnecessary pressure on all involved. We may as well hand in our playbooks, folks, because if we make the wrong move here it'll be a humiliating checkmate."  
Another reason behind Sasha's fame was her slight obsession with sports and games.  
Sally was quickly losing composure; being raised in an atmosphere where no one questioned her motives was almost the worst background to have on the Sasha Meltdown Show.

"W-what about Sonic, though?"  
Sasha's eyebrow rose. Most admitted defeat in the face of social death- not many tried to fight it. "What about him? He can do what no one else can; wouldn't it be a horrible move to pull him out and put thousands of soldiers in the line of fire?"

"Sonic isn't immortal!" Sally's armor cracked, and her smile wrinkled into a frown, her eyes narrowed into slits, and her brows furrowed deeply- on live TV. It wasn't the Meltdown Show for nothing.

"And yet he can outrun death." Sasha was as calm as ever, only her gyrating tail a sign of excitement. "Do you really want to go down in history as the Queen that killed her country?"

"This conference is over." Sally picked herself up and stalked offstage- no doubt to hail a taxi home and complain to poor old Sonic. Sasha gave a loud purr, and the crew joined her in laughter.

"I guess these are some questions that are still unanswered, folks, but I think we've achieved yet another juicy scoop!"  
The Chanel 11 logo spun onscreen and they cut to commercials, but Amy had seen quite enough.  
Sally hadn't always been so vindictive, Bunnie had told her, but constant pressure from everyone around her had made her unstable, and what with her stubborn and prideful demeanor it just kind of . . . snowballed. If Sally wasn't in the middle of fighting a war, they said, she wouldn't be nearly so mean. Just give it time, Amy, and Sally would stop being so aggressive.  
Tough beans, Princess. This was one Rose with thorns that bit back.

~0~ YANG-VERSE ~0~

"So what you're saying is that this thing will let us see Amy?"

"In a nutshell, yes. The stats I've received through the frequency scanner-"

"That what now?" He stood with the others in Tails' lab, but while everyone else was just nodding along Sonic had managed to get totally lost.

"The frequency scanner! You know, the Dream Rider? I used the statistics I got through that- like Amy's condition and her whereabouts- and using a combination of those and a data-compiler matrix I've managed to rig this together." He gestured to the small box with the simple blank screen on the side. "It'll let us observe Amy as though she were in a movie. I call it the Watch-Dog. If she's in pain or in trouble, it'll start barking. Loudly." Tails moved around the point at the odd shapes curled up at the sides. "Look! I even gave it little legs so it can run around and walk like a regular dog. Watch."  
He ran over to his desk, sitting down and facing back towards them.

"Watch-Dog, Come!" They watched, fascinated, and the odd shapes unfurled and sprouted out into skinny little legs. It ran over to Tails, a little lopsidedly, and sat back down, sucking the legs back in and settling itself. "Neat, huh?"

"Oh, yeah." Sonic's cheerful tone didn't betray a single iota of his actual intentions [most of which would get him decked.] "Real neat-o."

~0~ AMY-VERSE ~0~

Amy made it into the mushy-looking Twinkle Park first, settling down on a bench and watching the rides whirl and spin as she waited. It was so peaceful here, so charming, whereas outside was so riddled with pain and questions. So wonderful, so festive and much . . . too quiet. Where on Mobius was-

"BOO!"

"AUGH!" Amy surged up, startled, and turned to face him. "Sonic!"

"In the flesh!" Still laughing, he settled onto the bench just behind hers, turning so they faced each other. "Sorry if I scared you there, Ames. We cool?"

"No! You nearly scared me awake, and what would you do then?" She reached over to slap his arm, and he laughed, smiling.

"Probably wither and die away. But seriously, I have good news!" She pulled her arm back, looking at him with an expectant air. "We've figured out a way to bring you back home!"

"Honest?" She perked up, letting her ears fly straight up and grinning at him. He grinned back.

"Totally honest. And it's pretty simple, actually." He twisted a little more where he sat, facing her correctly. "You have to get all the chaos emeralds of your dimension and charge them up. I don't know where you'll find them, but you've got those fortune teller things. It shouldn't be too hard. We'll charge ours up, too, and a portal should open up. From there it's home free!"

"Wow! That sounds . . . deceptive." Amy, still smiling at him, narrowed her eyes. "How are you gonna know that I've got them all?"  
Sonic fidgeted uncomfortably. "Oh, you know . . . you'll just have to tell me when we're both here and we'll get you back when you wake up. Simple."

"Well- wait. How did you know I was a fortune teller?"

"I . . . guessed."

"Really." Her voice was disbelieving. His ears both flickered, and when he couldn't quite meet her eyes she knew he was lying.

"Yeah . . . no." He glanced at her, and her gaze sharpened into a threatening glare. "OK, so the deal is that Tails built Watchdog and it lets us see how you're doing in your world. Don't get angry, it's not like I see you bathing or anything . . ." He scratched the back of his neck. She waited for him to finish. "Of course, that would be hard in the first place, considering the fact that you shower."

"Sonic, do you know what the word 'privacy' means!?"

"Well, yeah, but curiosity gets the better of me sometimes."

"Curiosity killed the cat, Mister."

"Satisfaction brought him back, Ma'am." He winked at her, and she flushed. "Besides, I have to watch out for you! What if you get attacked in the loo? Killed with your trousers down." He tutted, shaking his head sadly. "What a horrible way to go."

"You jerk! You unbelievable-"

She blinked. She was back in her own bed, back in her P.J.'s, and back in the world that wasn't hers. "-Jerk."

~0~0~0~  
If you're wondering about the products she's using in her shower, I just made stuff up. I think she'd be girly that way, and she seems like the sort of person that would always smell really nice. Also, at the end where he's saying he needs to make sure she's safe, he's just bluffing to keep her from hitting him. He can't actually interact with her physical body. And tutting is that odd, 'tsk!' sound that our tongues make.


	4. Objective: ELIMINATE

~0~ YANG-VERSE ~0~

"Hey Sonic, you busy?" Knuckles rapped on the door to the speedsters' room, careful not to punch through it again. Miss Vanilla had put the fear of Chaos into him for that one.

"Yes." The reply was muffled by the heavy door, but the echidna could still catch the slight tone of guilt.

"Doing what?" His brow furrowed. If it was what he thought it was . . .

"None of your business."  
That cinched it. He pushed the door open and plopped down on the desk chair, facing Sonic where he sat on the bed. He had Watchdog lounging in front of him.

"Sonic, so help me if you are watching Amy take a shower AGAIN I will-"

"Chill, dude! She's lookin' for Chaos emeralds. Why do you care, anyway?" Sonic smirked at him, playfully suspicious.

"I wanna have a camera ready if you are. Remember last time?"  
Sonic grimaced. He did indeed remember last time. Shadow had barged in, saying something about Tails, and spotted the image on Watchdogs face before Sonic could turn it off. He still had the bruises. Note to self: Don't watch videos of his adoptive younger sister in the nude if Shadow is in any way able to find you.

"I want pictures of you getting your tail handed to you. Has she found any Chaos emeralds yet?" Knuckles smiled at the memory, but looked at Sonic for confirmation of his second statement.

"Not yet . . . but she's getting warmer."

~0~ YIN-VERSE ~0~

"Okay, this is getting exhausting." Amy collapsed in a heap at the base of a tree, frustrated. She'd flipped a coin and heads had won- she'd begun to walk straight into the nearest patch of forest, straight through it, right into the next one and was by now dog-gone pooped. Chaos emeralds, she'd read in the library, were highly unpredictable and could end up anywhere. She'd hoped that meant somewhere she could actually get to. Apparently it didn't.  
The doves swooped by, landing in their nest in the tree across from hers. Amy wondered vaguely if Sonic had birds like that in his world. Probably. But maybe not. Even if he did have such birds, she was sure they wouldn't have nests as odd as- wait a minute. She sat up, looking intensely up at the birds landing place.

"It can't be . . ."  
It was.  
A bright red Chaos emerald, identical to the one in the book, was snugly fit amongst the straw and weed-grass that surrounded the speckled eggs up high on the branch. Just her luck that as soon as she ran out of energy she'd find what she was looking for twenty feet straight up.  
A few minutes later Amy was at the base of the branch, looking rather disheveled but mostly triumphant.

"C'mere, you Chaos emerald, you!" She grabbed it, ignoring the indignant coos of the two doves and their attempts to peck at her hand. That's what gloves were for, after all. "Gotcha!"  
The emerald was a little different than she had imagined. Despite the book saying that they were all different colors, she'd still been imagining them with greenish tints to them, and dull shines like the Royal Emeralds. This was a gem from a pirates treasure chest, a brilliantly shining jewel that reflected her image back to her, older, stronger, better. The illustration in the book didn't do it justice. What would the others be like, she wondered for a moment, if this one was so enchanting all by itself . . .

"Intruder Alert. Target; Hedgehog. Priority Level; Five." A mechanical voice came from behind her, startling Amy out of the tree. She landed heavily, and looked around wildly for the speaker. She'd only unfocused for a minute, but already she was berating herself. Stupid, stupid! Never let your guard down- ever.  
A SWATbot stood before her, mechanical proof she'd been totally submerged in her thoughts.

"Identify."

"Amy Rose." She stood slowly, carefully. Sally was not the most friendly Mobian she'd ever met, but she knew her robots. If the princess was right, a SWATbot was a careless guard- if she didn't spaz she could slip away, no sweat. It clicked and whirred as it attempted to match her name to a number in its database.

"Unknown Specimen. Objective: Detain and Eliminate." It fired wildly, trying to lock in on her as she sprinted away, back towards home.

_'What?'_ The gears in her mind spun furiously as she tried to figure out what the machine had just said. _'Unknown? Everyone's known- Robotnik's got birth records in that database! I can't be Unknown!'  
_She rounded another clump of trees and burst out into the clearing, booking it for Knothole now that she was oh so close.  
The SWATbot was farther away now, unable to keep up with the girl who could track down Sonic. She was almost there- she only had to follow the fake pathway around the forest until she lost the bucket of bolts. Sally would get even angrier at her if she went straight for the hidden city. No one was even let through any more if they couldn't stand up to a series of N.A.T.U.R.A.L. tests.  
Amy almost never passed them all. She had different constitution, having grown up on an entirely different planet-  
She stopped short. The clanking of the SWATbot had long since gone away, but she only heard her last thought echoing through her head.  
She wasn't a Mobian- she was a Little. She wouldn't be in the databases because she'd never been in any records here on Mobius.

Robotnik didn't know who she was.

~0~0~0~

Oops. This chapter is really short. I just really wanted to end it with a cool note like that. Stuff starts to really happen in the next chapter; keep reading!


	5. You Know What

~0~ YANG-VERSE ~0~

"WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE AND WHY?" Shadow blasted his way into Sonic's room, followed by Rouge, who was rubbing her abused ears. A timid Cream scrambled in after them, and they all looked to Sonic for an explanation. The blue blur and Tails sat on his bed, looking at Watchdog. Sonic glanced at them, then focused on the machine again. He ticked off his fingers one by one.

"Amy. Danger. Just now. A tree. Eggman."  
Rouge tilted her head. "So that was the alarm, then?" Tails nodded in response. "Louder than I thought it would be."

"Is Ms. Amy all right?" Cream put her hands on the edge of Sonic's bed, looking at Watchdog worriedly.

"Yep." Sonic grinned. "Amy got away in time. She doesn't have her hammer there, but- Holy cow! Shadow! Breathe!"  
Shadow had started going a bit purple in the face, and all his fluff had puffed out in frustration. "What do you mean, up a tree without a hammer? What was she doing there without protection in the first place?"

"She was getting a Chaos emerald. And according to my calculations, her dimension doesn't have enough ambient chaos energy for her to be able to summon a hammer or even use super-strength. In fact-"

"Okay, what was the chaos emerald doing in the tree?" Rouge flapped her wings once for balance as she leaned down onto the desk. Answers were in order here.

"A couple of funky-looking birds had it in their nest." Sonic reached around to scratch Watchdog under its chin, and it wagged its tail happily. "And she managed to get to safety in time, so no worries." Rouge nodded, satisfied, and walked out of the room as casually as she could, waiting until she was out of sight before breaking into a sprint. She'd left a G.U.N. briefing to check out the noise and she was not looking forward to a scolding.

"AS I WAS SAYING." Tails bit out, raising his voice over Sonic and Shadow. Cream had gone back to the kitchen to help her mother with the brownies. "There's such a lack of chaos energy there that the other Sonic can't even run half as fast as our Sonic. There's also that thing with their eyes-" He gestured to the screen, showing profiles of those Amy had interacted with thus far. "Their irises are all black. No chaos energy, no color. I'm surprised that Sonic can run fast at all."

"Wait, does that mean-"

"Shush!" Shadow glared at Sonic. "Something's happening!"

~0~ YIN-VERSE ~0~

Amy might not have been the most powerful hedgehog in Knothole, but she could still hold her own against a chipmunk.

"Princess Sally," She ground out, her grip as tight as ever. "I understand that you want this jewel, but I'm afraid I can't let you have it." She pulled the emerald back a little, straining against the urge to simply tear the gem out of Sally's weak grip and spit at her feet. A Princess was a princess, after all.

"No!" Sally had let her hair hang a little looser today, and it hung heavily in her eyes. She tightened her grip- it she had no chance of winning this battle if she chose to go about it physically. Amy could take her down, easy. "Let me have the ruby! I'm princess- and I demand you give me this! Now!" She yanked and succeeded in moving it maybe an inch towards her. "I might even let you live here a little longer if you give it to me."

"Princess, I'm going to have to decline- what?" Amy pulled it back entirely, making Sally stumble. "What do you mean, 'live here a little longer'? I own this house, it's not rented or anything." She held the Chaos emerald against her chest, confused. "I don't see how I would be moving, either . . ."  
Sally leaned back, smirking. This was her high ground. "Let me explain something called 'Monarchy' to you, Amy." She shifted, eyeing the shimmering gemstone Amy held. "My father is King. I am Princess. You are naught but a peasant. You have to do what I say, when I say it."

"Uh-"

"And I've been meaning to build Rotor a bigger lab-" Amy felt her composure slipping by this point. Didn't Rotor have the biggest building in Knothole, save the Princesses' house, for his lab? Her little cottage couldn't even compare. "-And add a few more things here and there. Your land- and I use that term loosely- is exactly the right spot. So I was going to have this hut of yours torn down-" Hut!? "-But I think I could make a few adjustments if you give me that Ruby." The brown-furred princess held out one hand expectantly.  
Amy hesitated. Sally was right- this was a monarchy, and Amy could easily have her life flipped upside-down if she tried to fight against this flow. Maybe she should give her the emerald . . . just tide it over until she could ask for it back or Sally lost interest . . . Amy flexed her fingers against the smooth gem and looked into Sally's eyes, trying to See her intentions.  
She didn't even need Sight to know Sally would never give them back . . . and that she would still mean her threat about the lab.

"I- you know what?" Amy narrowed her eyes. Sally stepped back. "You know what? No."

"Excuse me?" The realisation of what Amy was doing dawned on the princess.

"No! You're acting childish and irrational, demanding I give you my treasure or you'll tear down my home. The princess Sally everyone admires would never do that. The princess Sally Sonic is in love with would never do that. The princess Sally that allowed me this home in the first place would never do that." Amy leaned in, her eyes slits of anger. "You know what? Maybe you're not the Princess you pretend to be after all."

"Why I never-"

"Sal!" Sonic skidded to a stop beside the outraged chipmunk. "We've gotta go, Antoine says- is something wrong?"  
He looked back and forth between the outraged Sally and Amy, who had assumed a air of distinct innocence. She looked like she wouldn't hurt a fly.

"Sonic!" Sally wheeled on him. "Amy won't give me the ruby and Rotor needs a new lab and Amy and- argh!" She stalked off, fuming. A few paces away she turned and growled, "Well? Are you coming or not?"  
She whirled around again and set off down the path, a confused Sonic following her.  
Amy watched them go, right up until they disappeared around the bend. This Sonic- this Sonic that was not hers- wasn't as fascinating as she'd always found him. Every little thing about him, everything she'd ever noticed before, she was comparing with her Dream-Sonic. Where the Sonic of her dreams had been so graceful, so smooth and quick with his every movement, this Sonic moved slower, more clumsily, like he was constantly posing for a camera that wasn't there. His spines were bulky where Dream-Sonics could slice a hole through her common sense, his color off as though faded and frayed at the edges. They both talked quick, right to the point, but Dream-Sonic said it in such a way every word held another story, another emotion, another way of looking at it. Dream-Sonic was the exact definition of freedom, whereas the Sonic of this world had to be the definition of 'hero' to the people of Mobius.  
It was the eyes that got her.  
She shook her head, clearing it off the black shapes that were this-Sonics. Green filled her mind, lush green like the emerald she had been expecting, sparkling green like nothing she'd ever seen before.  
Amy felt good. Finding a Chaos emerald, telling off Sally, making it this far without gaining another scar. On impulse, she checked her rough wooden mail-box. It was always empty, but today she felt like she had a chance . . .

Inside, she found a brilliant yellow Chaos emerald.

~0~0~0~

Yay, a chaos emerald! I hope this chapter is long enough to satisfy, especially after my last one. And my description of Archie Sonic is supposed to mean he's got to act like a perfect hero all the time, and pose for the press, and be an anchor for the traumatized people of Mobius. SEGA Sonic is just footloose and fancy free.


	6. Master Of Disguise

"Unbelievable." She sat on the edge of her bed, having just woken up from yet another meeting with Dream-Sonic. In front of her, laying on her desk, were the two Chaos emeralds she'd found yesterday. One in a tree, one in her mailbox . . . as soon as she'd walked in the door, she'd searched every cabinet, nook, and cranny in the entire house. If she had gone through that entire mess with the robot when all the other emeralds were hiding in her house the whole time . . . well. Dream-Sonic wouldn't be the only one with bruises.

The yellow was just as shimmery and fascinating as the red, the sun and warmth and happiness all wrapped up in a fist-sized jewel that ought to have been naught but a fairy-tale. And here it was.

Proving that Dream-Sonic was right.

He was real.

Which was a bit of a weight off her chest, and now that it was gone she breathed a little easier. Nothing like putting your hopes and dreams on the line . . . speaking of which, she was rather hoping for some breakfast.

The kitchen was clean, as always. After finding two different species of spiders in amongst her baking supplies, she'd made sure of that. Her pots and pans hung along the far wall, and she swept a finger over their tops as she reached into the cupboard for . . . she paused. No. No, today was not a good day to spend on baking. She actually had stuff to do, so another of the countless mornings spent making waffles she'd never finish was something she'd have to forfeit.

She grabbed a slice of pizza instead.

One glass of water and a vitamin tablet later, she was settled into her couch and flipping on the television. Medieval, her foot. What did Sonic know, anyway . . .

"- and in other news, Her Highness, Princess Sally, and Freedom Fighter Hero Sonic the Hedgehog found an interesting artifact as they were out scouting just yesterday. It's not identifiable as any sort of gemstone or mineral, but its shine is one for the record books! It's been put on display at Knothole Cultural Museum, and this reporter advises anyone with the chance to go and check it out!" It cut to a shot of the museum, then to the rock.

The blue chaos emerald.

Amy nearly threw her cup at the TV as a reflex, feeling the water going down the wrong pipe, but remembered at the last second it would be a bad idea and fumbled it. The glass landed on the fuzzy green carpet, water splashing over her socks and soaking her calves.

A chaos emerald, one of the very things so was so desperately searching for, had shown up in a museum, right under her nose, exactly where she couldn't get at it.

The curator had always been aloof towards her, but the staff liked her, and her younger days had been spent helping them out with cleaning the exhibits. This was their livelihood, a place she considered sacred, and now she would have to steal their latest entry. Like they were just some little, out of the way old museum that never mattered and she'd never noticed.

She couldn't.

But thinking about Dream-Sonic, and how even when he wasn't flirting with her he made her feel warm inside, fuzzy and cuddly and wanted, she bit her lip.

She had to.

AMY-VERSE

Amy fell asleep without trying, her brain running crazy with fragments of ideas, and so was doubly shocked when not only did she appear in a shopping mall but there was a bat girl with her.

"Um . . . hello?" Who are you and what are you doing in my head?

"Hiya, darling." The white-furred girl got up from her seat at a wrought-iron cafe table. "I'm Rouge, one of your friends here at home. And I," Amy gulped as Rouge met her eyes and smirked, "Am gonna teach you how to steal a Chaos Emerald."

She'd been sat down and pampered for a while, peppered with questions like, "How're you holding up? Sonic never tells us anything, acts like its some big secret you two talk with each other, are you eating enough? You look healthy, and your fur is simply gorgeous, how do you do it?"

After a while, she recognised the pattern. Rouges ear would twitch every time she really didn't want to be interrupted, she'd constantly glance at Amy for approval although she disguised them as sly, smug looks. Rouge may be rough on first impression, and hard to follow at times, but she really wasn't as bad as she'd feared.

It wasn't Dream-Sonic, irresistible flirt that he was, but it was still friendship she would cherish.

Amy glanced at the clock again for the fifth time in as many minutes. 9:00. The museum would close in one hour, and according to Rouge she had to get there right as soon as they did that or she'd miss her chance to both get in and get past the guards. Time to get ready.

She was sitting at her vanity, products and dyes piled in front of her, and in the mirror's reflection she could see her clothing strewn about the floor. She'd spent the day going through everything for a disguise, a way to make absolutely certain none of the staff would recognize her. And here she was, about to try and tear apart the image she'd spent so much time building.

She ran the brush through her quills one last time, already regretting her forthcoming actions. Amy had been so proud of her beautifully long quills for such a long time . . .

Yes. Maybe it was time to let go.

Pink locks fell to the floor in thick chunks, her scissors working like mad to get her hair cut above her shoulders. 'It's just like ripping off bandages,' she told herself. No harm done.

Sure enough, she was soon sitting among a carpet of soft pink and biting her lip to the reflection. She didn't look bad, per say, but she didn't look at all the way she'd gotten used to. Rouge had told her, quite enthusiastically, that her quaff and crispy locks were glorious but recognizable, and besides, she couldn't undo what she had just done. She'd be fine.

"Now for the big changes." She picked up the dye and eyed it carefully. Amy had spent an entire hour selecting the right one- when she'd first gotten to Mobius, she'd gone through a good deal of impulses concerning her fur and ended up with a basketful of sprays and lotions. Finally, Amy had decided upon 'Autumn Red'. A good name, a good color, a good way of making herself totally unrecognizable.

The spray worked itself into her fur, changing the color and sticking itself to the quills she prized.

Half an hour later, Amy'd finished the make-up and put on her outfit, a pair of black leggings and a knitted black turtleneck that she hoped would both hide her and keep her warm from the cooling air.

She tucked a white rose behind her ear for good luck and headed off to the museum.


	7. A Thief In The Night

~0~ YIN-VERSE ~0~

Unknown to Amy- in fact, unknown to anyone- someone else was slipping through the museums' guards at the very same time as Amy, sliding between patrols and dodging cameras. No footsteps sounded as they shot down the hallway- they were much too good at this for that- and the door provided only a soft hiss when hacked open by the figure. They slunk into the room where the stone labeled 'Princess Sapphire' was kept, the blue glow reflecting off of their eyes and bouncing off into the shadows. They resisted the amateur urge to dash at it and stuck to the wall, reminding themselves of the camera. They would never make it out of this guard-infested nest if they weren't careful. This jewel was everything right now.  
The Princess Sapphire was only scheduled to be kept here maybe a year. Long enough that the press won't feel the need to dig deeper into its ownership and a short enough time that the princess wouldn't have to wait all that long. It had been filed under her name as a temporary exhibit, and when the contract was up the princess would undoubtedly snatch it up and keep it hidden in her inaccessible treasure rooms, like all the other precious things that someone as privileged as Princess Sally could never see as more than trinkets.  
To the thief, though, they were much more.  
This, in particular, was special. Word on the streets said the princess wouldn't say no to someone who showed up at the door with the gem and a ready wallet. This piece would be a lot just normally, at some auction or other, but the look on the princess' face when she saw their fee would be priceless.  
They pulled out a small plastic casing and popped it, rolling it over to lie beneath the camera. It spat out a watery chemical that reacted almost violently to the surrounding oxygen, quickly turning into mist and wafting upwards, steaming up the glass. The guards watching it would assume that the room had experienced a sudden draft and wouldn't react . . . after all, they could still see basic shapes and it would wear off in a little while anyway, right?  
The thief knew better, and with another unidentifiable gadget they shot a minuscule claw out to wrap around the jewel. A small tug on the hyper-dense wire ensured that it was secure, and with a steady hand, the thief towed the jewel away. The guards watching the cameras would assume that a shadow had passed over the skylight, and disregard it. Too bad for them.  
The thief made their way back down the hall to make their escape, and had just opened the doors to the enormous lobby when-

"Stop right there!" A small girl with dark red fur stood in front of them, arms stretching to the side, blocking their way. A determined look was on her face, and she was slowly twitching her hands into fists.

"Aw, playing hero?" The thief settled into a battle stance and smirked at the girl. "Cute."  
The ensuing fight was quick and furious, the two brawlers hidden in the shadows of the expansive lobby and trying desperately to NOT GET CAUGHT. Sharp gasps were quickly muffled, the whistling of fists through the air and 'whacks' of impact impossibly loud in the silence of the lobby. They danced around enormous marble pillars, both fighters trying to knock the other off balance in some way; the moonlight caught on Amy's quills as they fanned out, and more than once her shoes squeaked painfully on the polished tile floor.  
Finally, Amy slipped up and dodged a little too late; she caught the full force of a sucker punch to the face and went right down.

"Uuughh . . ." Oh, her aching head- was she gonna have a shiner in the morning or what! Playing dead sounded pretty good right about now.

"THERE! THE THIEF! OVER HERE, OVER HERE! IN THE LOBBY!" A sharp scream came from the doorway behind the pair, and they both whipped around to look at the source. A guard was standing there, communicator in hand, glaring at the figure in black. Amy, by some grace of Chaos, was as of yet unnoticed from her vantage point on the floor. Yep. Playing dead had been a very good move on her part.

"Fantastic." The figure was a thief, not a mercenary, and quite frankly only got a shot in on Amy because Amy was used to fighting robots three times her size. Wings unfurled from the criminal's back, and they prepared to take off right through the skylight above them. They would have made it, too, if it weren't for Amy grabbing their ankle and yanking.  
The figure came crashing to the floor, taking down the now in-range guard as they went, and the jewel came bouncing out of the pouch on their belt.

"You're in for it now, scum. We're gonna get you in the slammer for years on this." The overzealous guard slapped a pair of handcuffs on the dazed figure, sneering with the capture of a villain.  
Amy, not about to stick around and suffer the same fate, grabbed the emerald and booked it.

~0~ YANG-VERSE ~0~

"I'm so proud!" Rouge sniffed and wiped an imaginary tear from her eye. "She did a wonderful job."  
She was met with a chorus of agreeable murmurs from the others; they had Watchdog sitting on the coffee table in the living room, and they had spent a good five minutes brawling over who got to sit where on the couch. She was leaning over Shadow, who tolerated it only because Tails had managed to sneak some more antidepressant prototypes into his food.  
As the image on Watchdog's face shifted to her sprinting home, the various viewers filtered away. They didn't all live at Rabbit Manor and really, what with saving the world every other day, they needed their sleep.

"Sonic, shoo. She's falling asleep and you have yet to tell her about her condition- I ran a few more tests and calculated against the average mortality ratio of her dimensions coordinates that she has up to a significant amount of time left, but I also had to recalibrate my Dimensional Radioactivity Surveyor so I may be a little off on that-" Tails was cut off by Shadow.

"Blue, if you don't get off your butt and into that Dream Rider thing, I will personally rip off your spines and feed them to you."  
Note to self; tell Tails his antidepressants need serious work.

"No need, Mr. Sunshine, because YOU are going to visit with her tonight."

"Excuse me?" A dangerous edge entered his voice, and Rouge quickly took a few steps back.

"I mean, she's got to know that she can trust everyone here, not just me." Sonic grinned brightly, a stark contrast to his glowering fellow. "Go on, go on! She doesn't bite!"  
A few more encouragements from Sonic and Rouge finally got Shadow to [reluctantly] follow Tails into the lab, and thus into the Dream Rider. When he was sure Shadow was out for the count, Sonic finished his sentence.

"She's just got a nasty right hook."

~0~

Sorry for another ridiculously short chapter. Tell me if you guys think this is a good length or not, because things are gonna start getting complicated.  
Review! Please! I have no idea what you guys are thinking about where I'm going with this- I don't care if you flame me or flatter me, just give me some idea of where to go.  
Also, I'm going to start trying to update every Friday. Thanks for reading!


	8. Brotein Shake

~0~ AMY-VERSE ~0~

Amy fell asleep expecting Twinkle Park; what she got was a cold steel warehouse with tiny windows way up on the too-tall walls, made of that rippled metal that made such a horrible screeching noise when one touched it. The floor was made of smooth grey concrete, and a zillion dead bugs lined the walls. In the corner was a great big machine that looked a bit like a container . . . only whatever HAD been in there certainly wasn't anymore.  
She couldn't be in here anymore; it felt way too empty, far too sad.  
Outside it looked a bit like the airfield at Robotnik's base, if he ordered it to be set on fire then left it alone for fifty years. She could see burned out skeletons of old fighter planes with odd flags and icons drawn on them. Was this a Dream as induced by her Sight, a dream as induced by Dream-Sonic, or just some freaky dream from the depths of her subconscious?

"Sonic? Are you here?" She spoke quietly, wanting to be heard but at the same time not at all wanting to be found. "Sonic? Rouge?" She was answered by a sharp whistling of wind past the charred hangars. Okay, maybe the container had never held anything. Maybe this was just some odd dream brought on by all the stress of fighting some criminal in the dark while avoiding who she used to think were good guys. Maybe-

"Amy?"  
Maybe it was right behind her.

"Who's there?" She whirled around, fists clenched tightly, and gritted her teeth. Whatever had busted out of that machine back in the warehouse must've been tough. Possibly tougher than she could handle; she'd have to outsmart it, but if it knew her name that was not a safe bet.  
A black hedgehog with steely eyes held up his hands, as though to placate her. He didn't carry any weapons, but she knew better than to go by just that. He spoke softly, calmly.

"Amy, don't worry. I'm not here to hurt you." She thought he smiled then, for a fleeting moment, and then he was back to the stone-cold expression. "My name is- wait, do you remember me?"

"N-no." She shook her head, and realised her quills were the same as when she'd fallen asleep; red and short. "No, I don't remember ever seeing you before." She added a questioning tone in the end there, letting him know she wanted to know exactly why he expected her to know him. He sighed, his eyes closing slowly, then opened them again.

"Well, I remember you, so if you could please change up the scenery a bit, I'd appreciate it." The two looked around as the empty airport faded into a great big park, the kind with twisting walkways and wrought iron benches. "Ooh. Just as Sonic said."

"Sonic said?" It clicked. "Wait, you're from Sonic's world?" Amy collapsed back onto a bench, rolling her eyes. "HOW do you guys keep getting into my dreams?"  
He laughed, and settled down a few inches away from her, elbows propped up on the back of the bench in a much more relaxed state. "Long story, sis. Nice haircut, by the way."  
She shifted, tilting so she could look at him without breaking her neck, and gave him a shocked look. "You're my brother? Sonic didn't see fit to tell me I had a sibling?" She brought up a hand to card through her quills, "And thanks."

"Myeh. The Blue Butt's always pulling stuff like that; he probably thought it wouldn't matter, because we're not actually related." He shook his head, watching a bird fly past. "My name's Shadow."

"Shadow?" She scooted away on reflex, and he glanced at her curiously.

"What, is the me in your world some kinda freak?"

"If by freak you mean the single most dangerous person, like, ever, yeah." She bit her lip, watching him. Was he offended? She had sort of fumbled that one; coulda broken it to him easier, but too late now.  
Woof. If the face he made was any indication, he was flabbergasted.

"Oh, yuck! That's so messed up- I- oh, gosh." He leaned forward and buried his face in his hands, balancing his elbows on his knees. He sounded sick. "That's disgusting."

"Are you . . . okay?"

"I'm not him." He sat back up quickly, looking her in the eye and grabbing her by the shoulders. "Seriously."

"NOT Shadow? But you just said-" Amy's brow furrowed and he frowned.

"Of course I'm Shad- oh, wait. No. Yes. Maybe . . . yes? No!" He sat back and ran his hands over his spines, dropping them into his lap. "Okay, I am A Shadow, but not the nutcase from your world."

"But Sonic said my world was his world, and if you're from his world, then you'd be the nutcase. Or do you mean the world I'm currently in has a nutcase you running around in it?" She began to draw on her hand with her finger, tracing one idea around and around. "So . . . you're Shadow but not the Shadow I think you are, and instead a Shadow that's you?" She paused, looking at the invisible drawing she scrawled on her palm. Amy gave him a sharp look.

"Or are you saying I'M the nutcase?"

"No one here is a nutcase." It took him a minute to get it out, considering how hard he was laughing, but he looked sincere enough when he finally wheezed it out, so she let it slide that he might have actually slipped an insult in there somewhere.

"So . . . what happened? Why are you here and not Sonic?" She looked around, and added, "And where are we?"  
He twisted his mouth, shifting back into his original position, and began to speak. "Okay; I'm here because Sonic is a total buttface and keeps forgetting to tell you that there's actually a REASON you need to get back here," he gave her a conspiratorial look, "And not whatever mushy stuff he told you." He took a deep breath, and, avoiding her eyes, continued. "Tails- dorky brainiac that he is- has figured out that somehow, in the last few months, you've managed to get overcharged with Chaos energy. In our world- mine, yours, and Sonics- this wouldn't be a problem, because we're all mega-charged and our excess energy just leaks out easy. You world is not like that at all, and if we don't get you home soon enough the effects won't be pretty. Any questions?"

Shadow finally looked over at her, and sighed to see the glazed over eyes that greeted him. "You awake?"

"Yes!" She shook herself. "I just, um, didn't quite get that last bit."

"Listen closely and I'll try to simplify it; let's say Chaos energy is water, 'kay? Regular people are empty balloons, and people like you and me, we're water balloons. With me so far?" She nodded. "Now, in my world, the basic atmosphere is that of a warm summer's day. Us water balloons are fine. Going back, remember when I said you were overcharged?" Another nod. "Right now, you're a water balloon full to bursting. A kid tries to throw you and he'll end up getting soaked himself. Now, if you were in our world, this would be fine. One of us would siphon off your energy and you'd be balanced out again. Your world, though, is more like a freezer." He winced here. "And have you ever seen a water balloon that's spent too long in a freezer?" She shook her head. "Well, as I said before, it's not pretty."

"Okay, I think I get it all. But I'm still lost on the whole 'not pretty' bit. I mean, Sonic- the Sonic in my current world- uses Chaos energy all the time and he's fine so-"

"Amy." He put a hand on her shoulder and looked at her seriously. "If you don't come home soon, you will explode. And take a city or two with you." He let her go and looked thoughtful. "In fact, the effect would be like that of a nucleo-radial bomb; nothing would grow there until mother nature could completely recycle the toxins you'd leave behind." He shivered dramatically. "Yikes. What a concept."

"I-" Amy gulped and furrowed her brow. "Wow. That's a lot to- woah." How is someone supposed to react to suddenly knowing one is a walking nucleo-radical whatever that could kill everyone they know?  
A warm arm wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her to sit pressed up against the surprisingly comfortable man beside her. No fear filled her, as it had earlier, but she looked at him curiously all the same. He looked agitated.

"I wasn't kidding about us being brother and sister, Amy, even if you were always better at this hugging thing." He looked sheepish for a moment, and scratched at his chin with his free hand. "I probably shouldn't have told it to you like that; last time I told you something point blank like that, you punched me through a wall and wouldn't talk to me for a week."

"Aw, it's okay. I was being pretty oblivious. Even if you were explaining it with far too many odd metaphors."

"Oh, good! I was really worried for a minute there."

"Silly." Huh! She certainly hadn't meant to say that out loud, but he didn't look offended. In fact, he laughed at the statement, grinning.

"Man, I missed you." He squeezed around her shoulders tightly, and she bumped her shoulder up against his ribcage in return.

"I missed you too, brotein shake." Okay, that had definitely not been meant to slip out. Now he looked really surprised.

"Wow! I'm surprised you remember that! Must've been maybe a month or so after we met . . . you got so into puns I thought I would die."  
They laughed for a bit, chatting about this and that and with a great many puns on Amy's part. After a while she brought up the scenery.

"Where are we? I'm usually in Twinkle Park with Sonic . . ."

"Hah! Your date; I remember that. You would NOT shut up about it for the longest time. YEah, this is the park behind our apartment building, and where you usually dragged me out for 'sunlight'. We played so many games of Frisbee I'm kind of waiting to evolve into some higher life form with hands frozen into a Frisbee grip."

"And the warehouses? Back at the beginning of the dream?"

"Oh, those." He looked sour. "That's where we first met; I was a genetic experiment gone rogue and you were one of the heroes chosen to stop me. I guess your subconscious knew I was there and adjusted to fit the occasion."

"Oh." She frowned. "I had been afraid it was some sort of nightmare based on Robotnik's headquarters, all empty and burned like that. I was doubly scared of this when you showed up like some bringer of death."

"Oh, so any dream with me in it automatically becomes a nightmare?" He grinned.

"Not all of them, but 99.8 percent of them yeah." Shadow pulled away from her a little, looking at her with an exaggeratedly hurt expression.

"So there's a big chance that this is a nightmare? All because of me?"

"If you're trying to guilt trip me, brotato chip, it's not going to work. I have nerves of steel." Amy pushed at him with her elbow and he laughed.

"Jeepers Creepers, I guess I'm gonna have to try harder."  
She gave him a look and a smirk. "'Jeepers Creepers'?"

"Hey, don't look at me that way. You're the one who came up with it."

"What?! You're pulling my leg."

"No, really!" Shadow snickered. "I was late coming home because I'd been helping Rouge out with a drug-bust, and boom! You come outa nowhere with a baseball bat and a halloween mask on. I nearly punched you before I realised who you were, and when I tried to chew you out about it you just answered with, 'Jeepers creepers, Shadow, I thought you were a monster!'"

"Oh, wow. I can't believe I said that . . ."

"Well, you were, like, eight, so I can hardly blame you." He shifted again, and his ever-moving face changed to something more serious. "Now, I know it's probably the last thing you wanna do, but you're gonna want to find the Shadow in your world. He's undoubtedly going to have a chaos emerald-"

"Why?"

"Oh, well, because I am a fairly old genetic experiment and it took a lot of upgrades to get to the point that I could even walk around without an emerald in my hand and-"

"No, I mean the finding Shadow part. Couldn't I just . . . I dunno, skip over him?"

"No can do, Amy. You have three emeralds right now, and if you get even just one more, he'll be able to sense you and he'll come after you. You've gotta get his next, THEN the others, so that he won't be able to chase after you. It's not going to be easy, but it's the safest way."

"SAFEST?" She gave him a wild look. "He took on an entire SWATbot squad in record time and walked away without a scratch! When NICOLE hacked the G.U.N. training stats it said he scored perfect in everything! You want me to go up against that?"  
He bit his lip. "Okay, yeah, not the safest way." He sucked in a deep breath and blew it out slowly. "But if you get the drop on him now, it'll be better than him deliberately coming after you later, right?"  
They argued back and forth for a while, Amy almost convincing him it was the worst idea ever and Shadow repeatedly going back to the beginning and starting the whole argument over again. Finally, she agreed to at least look for the Shadow in her world, and he crowed with a job well done.

"Excellent! I knew you'd see it my way! Now," He rubbed his hands together and looked at her curiously. They were sitting with the soles of their feet pressed against each other, backs against the arms of the bench, and he stretched a little to free up his poor spines. "What do you and the Blue Butt do until you wake up?" A thought struck him, and he glared at the space above her head. "Because if he spends the entire time flirting with you I swear to chaos he is never getting back in this dream machine."

"No, mostly he tells me what your world is like, and what sort of things we could do when I get back." She shrugged.

"Does he tell you about all his embarrassing moments?" Shadow smiled evilly, his ears perking up as though they, too, could sense a chance to humiliate Sonic.

"No." Amy grinned back. "What's he do, talk in his sleep?"

"Oh, no. It's way better than that." Shadow settled back and thought about which one to reveal first. "Okay, well, there was this one time where we invited him to a picnic in this park and he promised he'd be there at two. But he didn't show up and by three we were getting kinda worried so we went to his house, broke in, and found him in his room dancing like a wildcat to a boyband he SWORE he hated- turns out you'd left the CD at his house to spite him and had been listening to it and got all caught up in it and when he turned around and saw us he FLIPPED OUT. He nearly hit the ceiling, he jumped so high. I actually got it all on video, but I can hardly show it to you here." He gesutlated wildly, giving all-too-easy-to-picture imagery to the story.

"You've GOT to be kidding!" Amy was doubled over, arms wrapped around her middle, nearly crying with laughter.

"If you think THAT was funny, wait 'till you hear THIS . . . "

~0~ YANG-VERSE ~0~

"So?" Sonic looked at him with laser vision. Shadow pulled out the milk and Marshmallow Puffs [Cereal he swore up and down he only ate because it was the only stuff Amy let in their apartment but secretly liked] and sat down, stirring it all together in his bowl.

"So, what?"

"SO, what did she say? You told her about the whole dying thing, right?"

"Ah, yes, that." He could hardly remember. He'd spent so much time telling her about Sonic's many flops that the uneasy start had nearly erased itself from his mind. "I told her." He took a few small bites, trying to ignore Sonic glaring at him.

"Did she SAY anything!? Shadow, come on, spill it!"

"She said that if she sees you again she'll tear off your tail and use it to fish for sharks. Something else, too, along the lines of horrible torture and despair." Even as he looked evenly at the blue blur, he was mentally patting himself on the back for saying it with a straight face.

"You made that up!" Sonic pulled a face at him and stuck out his tongue. "You probably can't even remember what she said."

"Whatever you say. Seriously, though, you might wanna be careful next time you enter her dreams." Shadow ate a little quicker to discouage any more questions from the now glowering Sonic and headed out to the roof, calling out as he went, "Watchdog! Here, boy!" The robot yipped and clambered after him, scrambling up into his arms and he pushed open the door to the balcony.

"Hey, hey, hey! Where do you think you're going?" Sonic yelled after hm, still a little annoyed, and Shadow smirked to himself before answering with Sonics own trademark reply;

"Out!"

~0~0~0~

Wow, these chapters are deplorably short. I'll make the next one longer, 'kay?  
If Shadow's reaction to his Archie-Self's reputation is too dramatic, it's because I originally had him witten out as a serial killer, and liked his reaction too much to re-write it. I changed it, though, because Shadow's gonna be a big part of the up-coming story; not that you'll know why until I post those chapters.  
_Please, please, please_ review. I know this isn't a super-high-quality story, and that the chapters are too short [I'll fix that, I swear] but I'd really appreciate reviews from you guys. I always thought other authors were exaggerating when they begged for reviews, but now I think I might legit be addicted to them.

Thanks for reading; see you next Friday!


	9. Witch & Ghost

~0~ YIN-VERSE ~0~  
Amy woke up and showered quickly, not willing to chance Sonic peeping on her again. She took extra time brushing her quills, though, running her fingers through the fine fur and thinking. She had to get the emerald from this world's Shadow, that much was sure, but she wasn't positive her self-preservation instincts would kick in quickly enough that she'd survive an encounter with him. After all, he was her 'brother', in a sense, and she trusted Dream-Shadow.  
She grimaced into the mirror, pushing those thoughts out of her mind. She'd messed up a little with the dye, putting too much on her quills and not waiting long enough before showering. It had run through, staining all her fur- the skin on her arms and face where no fur grew, even- a mix between the brownish-red of the dye and the reddish-pink of her fur. It stayed in clumps on her quills, though, and she brushed them out repeatedly to get the lumpy clods of dye off.  
No sense staining her nice clothing with her fur all gross like this. Amy pulled on some old clothes she'd used to paint her house all those years ago, a was-white-then-accidentally-painted-blue tank-top and a pair of faded denim shorts, prayed that they wouldn't be entirely ruined, and headed downstairs.  
A heavier breakfast was required today [running away from Shadow on nothing but a banana was not going to cut it] so Amy took her sweet time with that, too, and decided to try something Shadow had mentioned she'd made back when they lived together. 'Snowflake Pancakes'. Regular pancakes she could do, and on relfex she added chocolate chips.

"Shoot!" Hadn't he said she couldn't add those, or it'd mess up the recipe? Oh, well. Too late now, and chocolate couldn't hurt anyone.  
Amy pulled out a plastic bag, made the cut in the corner a little bigger to make room for the chips, and made what felt like a zillion different snowflake designs by the time she ran out of batter.  
Eating hers and packing the rest away for later, Amy relfected that yeah, she could really use a brother. Making it's supposed to be the fun part, and eating it your reward, but now . . .  
Well. No use sitting here; she's as ready as she'll ever be.  
She headed out, carrying the blue emerald with her. If she was killed or dropped the thing, at least then no one would know there were other ones.  
Shadow had told her- Dream-Shadow, that is- that his other self ought to be hanging around either the space station ARK [unlikely, as it had blown up] or the base where he'd been contained until recently. He had abandonment issues.  
So she took a bus through the capital, glaring for a moment at Sally's window, and made her way through the Black Forest until she found the burnt-out base. Great, big, robot-sized holes littered the thick concrete walls, and huge tubing [probably for the lightning-sized bursts of electricity Robotnik was so fond of using] lay asunder. She bit her lip and shuddered at the sudden cold [why was it so dark here? Bad memories?] before heading up the worn path to the front door.  
It had been ripped off its hinges, and was broken in pieces in the great big room that once housed the evil geniuses guard-bots, which were now smashed to bits.

"H-Hello?" She put a hand on the door frame and prepared to step through.

"Stop right there, girl." A dark, haggard command stopped her cold. His voice was not as hateful and angry as she'd imagined . . . he just sounded tired.  
She knew how that felt.

"Who are you, intruder?"

"I- I, um-" She still couldn't see him, and assumed he was hiding somewhere in the pitch-black room before her. "I- I'm-"

"Why do you trespass into my sanctuary?" He tried again. His words were sharper now, and she imagined him readying his infamous chaos bolt, preparing to fire . . . she shook her head.

"I need your Chaos Emerald." Dream-Shadow had explained that the Shadow here could live without an Emerald just fine, and she only had to worry about getting it away from him.

"What?" He faltered, and the fuzzy image she'd developed in her mind showed him stepping back, uncertain. He steadied himself.

"Who are you, to so casually demand such things? This emerald is MINE, witch."

"I need it far more than you do, ghost." SHOOT-SHOOT-SHOOT! She had NOT meant to insult him!  
How dare she! Shadow reared back, summoning another chaos bolt and aiming. How dare this- this SHE-BEAST- attempt to demand his emerald, and then insult him in his own home! He shook off the voice in the back of his mind that whispered that this was hardly a home, and he was hardly more than a ghost. Now was not the time.

"Are you going to give me the emerald or not?" She steeled herself, calling out. "Or are you afraid to let it go?" She set her foot down on the old base's floor, floor no one but Shadow had touched for years. A violation of his space. A mockery of his power. Outside, she was collected and confident. Inside, she was screaming her head off.

What. On. Mobius. Was. She. Trying. To. Do.

Shadow dissolved the bolt and used his emerald [green, a color he secretly felt more majestic than the others] to teleport behind the girl. Spontaneous combustion was too good for her. He would drop her off in the Arctic Tundra, show her just how cold this world was to those with too much confidence in themselves, those who felt all-powerful yet forgot that maybe there was someone vulnerable right behind them- no, he couldn't let himself think about that.

"What are you- ack!" Amy was yanked up from behind and crushed against the same body she'd hugged just hours ago, though this time the body belonged to someone who definitely did not think of himself as her brother.  
As soon as the emerald in his hand flashed, she understood.  
Amy wrenched herself out of his grasp, wrestling with him for the jewel while they hung in the chaos continuum, green stretching on for miles, and the stomach-dropping effect of chaos control was something she could not allow to bother her. She felt as though the skies had opened up and were pouring a tidal wave of chaos energy down on her. Her senses had never felt so sharp- nor had she ever felt so acutely what it was like to drown.  
Shadow reveled in this every time he used chaos control; it was one of the very few things that made him feel even remotely happy anymore. So close to death here, one moment of hesitation could lead to combustion, and yet more powerful than anything else in the world. This woman would know true terror when she had to leave this comforting fold for the burning cold of the Tundra.  
Suddenly, faster than even Shadow could sense- the Emerald slipped out of his grasp.  
The two hung there for a moment, watching breathlessly as the green around the faded and died away to exhibit a deep blue sky.

And then they fell.

~0~0~0~

Yay, some action- not much, but now you know why I said Shadow was important. Please review, and tell me what you think of the chaos continuum? I want Chaos Energy to be a big thing here, and part of how Amy's transportation/transformation worked. [Sorry for the short chapter, but I'm beginning to think I run on reviews which isn't a good thing.]


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